Maintaining a healthy diet is vital for feeling good and having energy to get through your day, and plus, it keeps you looking your best.  For women in particular, eating healthy food reduces PMS, boosts fertility levels, fights stress, is beneficial for pregnancy in many ways, and helps reduce menopausal symptoms.  No matter how old you are, eating nutritiously throughout your lifetime is important, and there’s no better place to start than right here, right now.  Here are a few nutrition tips for you to kick start your healthy eating habits:

First, make sure your diet is properly balanced.  A lot of women think that depriving themselves from certain food groups will boost weight loss.  While that may be true, it is only true temporarily, and in the long run will have negative effects on your body.  So, make sure that your diet is well-rounded and contains whole grains, vegetables, healthy fats, protein, and fruit.  To start, you want to think about eating lots of leaves and foods that are plant-based.  Legumes, along with beans and grains, are great at keeping yourself feeling full because they are filled with fiber, an extremely important item in your diet that will keep you from overeating.

Next, make sure you are getting your calcium fix.  As women, bone loss is common (osteoporosis), so you want to make sure that you are getting an adequate amount of calcium each day.  Apart from dairy products, which can actually have a negative impact on bone loss in the long run, focus on eating foods like broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts.  If you aren’t a veggie person, learn to become one.  Increasing the amount of vegetables you eat each day will leave you feeling awesome, and if you don’t believe this – try it.  At least for a week, you’ll be sure to see a huge difference in the way you feel.

The next tip might be upsetting, but it’s important to cut back on caffeine and alcohol.  Especially during the winter when there are a plethora of holiday events and the last thing you want to do in the morning is leave your cozy bed and face the cold.  But, caffeine consumption and alcohol consumption can both lead to bone loss, so try your best to limit yourself to one glass of alcohol and one cup of caffeine per day.  Of course, there are going to be exceptions depending on your schedule, but as a lifestyle change this is really rewarding advice.

Lastly, be sure to get enough iron incorporated into your diet – many women don’t get enough.  This is particularly important during menstruation when women tend to lose a lot of iron.  Eating red meat, poultry, lentils, almonds, and spinach are all great sources of iron.  So when it’s your time of month, be sure you fill your diet with iron.  And remember, too much red meat is not good for you, so try to limit yourself to red meat only twice a month.

For more information on nutrition and health advice for women, read this article published by Help Guide.